Northeast Braces for “Monster Blizzard”

Two powerful storms are expected to converge overnight across the Northeast with blizzard conditions possible for portions of New England. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has warned that “travel may become nearly impossible with blowing/drifting snow and near zero visibility during the height of the storm (Friday afternoon into Saturday morning).” They have asked that motorists stay off the roads if they can during the storm to allow snow plows to clear the roads.

In advance of the storm, we have been in contact with our co-location data center facilities. They assure us that teams are monitoring the situation and are prepared for adverse impacts to the surrounding areas and possible impact to operations. All back up power systems have been tested, fueled and prepared for use. Fuel providers have been alerted for possible support.

There are a few things ShoreTel Sky clients can do today that might help lessen the storm’s impact to your business:

Forward your direct dial lines

We don’t recommend forwarding your main numbers. However, your individual users may want to utilize our Find Me forwarding service to send calls to home phones or mobile devices. This is especially useful if transportation interruptions are anticipated. This video will show you how.

Use Night or Holiday Mode to alert inbound callers

You may want to set your phone system to “Night” or “Holiday” mode so that you can alert callers about changes in business hours or call coverage during the storm. To do this, you can use our Time of Day settings. Here’s how: Log in to Service Portal

Log in with your email address and registered password. (If you have forgotten your password, Recover and Reset options are available.)

Switch your main line to Night Mode or Holiday Mode – depending on what you currently have configured and re-record that greeting to alert inbound callers to what’s happening. This one-minute video will show you how.

Modifying your auto-attendant greetings

If you need to make changes to the messages your callers hear when they call, you can change your recordings:

Call your direct line.

As soon as you hear your voicemail greeting press *.

Enter your VM password.

Press 5.

Press 7.

Enter your system greeting password when prompted, followed by the # key (if you do not know your system password, please email skysupport@shoretel.com).

Enter your Audio ID Code followed by the # key. Your audio id codes can be found on the Service Portal under Organization -> Phone system -> Callflow settings -> Search for “Main AA” and select the name in the left panel. The number that appears in the “Sound file” box is the Audio ID code for that greeting.

Follow the prompts to either Press 1 to review or 2 to re-record the greeting.

After selecting 2 to re-record the greeting, press # after recording.

Remember to listen to the prompts and press 3 to save the changes you have made.

A great option during a weather event is to encourage employees to work from home. End users who have a microphone and speakers on their computer can login from anywhere with internet access and take and make calls with the ShoreTel Sky Softphone. Although this is a paid service, you can use it for free for 30 days. To register during or after the 30 day trial, select “Help” and then “Register Software.” You will need to know your organization’s “cluster” to set up the softphone. You can find this in the portal by going to Organization – > Call Flow Setting -> Partition. This is your “cluster” setting.

Take your phone home

If you have internet access at home, you can plug your office phone into your router and manage calls as you normally would. (Don’t forget to take the power adapter home along with the phone.) This page provides help with configuration.

We hope you find this information helpful. We will be fully staffed and available to assist clients. We encourage you to reach out to us if we can help in any way.

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